Recently, at the invitation of the Muslim Students Association, Imam Youssef Soussi presented a public address titled "What Would Jesus Say?" at St. Cloud State University.

The imam challenged the divinity of Christ as believed by Christians. Using several passages from the Bible, the speaker asserted God is not a God of confusion, does not share divinity with anyone and that God cannot be man.

Also using Biblical references, Soussi claimed that while Jesus was a prophet and performed miracles like Muhammad, Jesus was not God. Further, the imam asserted Jesus did not and would not allow himself to be worshiped.

For more than an hour, the speaker challenged Christian beliefs about Jesus' divinity. He promised to return at a later date and challenge the Christian notion that Jesus died on the cross.

During the question-and-answer period, one Muslim student asked whether it was right for him, as a follower of one religion, to use a public forum to criticize the beliefs of another religion. His response was his religious training prepared him to be able to do so.

If the hope of the speaker and those who invited him was to stoke an angry response from the audience, no one indulged them.

As a person who has some understanding of Islam and Christianity and their holy books, as a person who respects other people's beliefs and way of life, and as a person aware of religious conflict caused by ignorance and religious passions, I was dismayed that our socially vulnerable immigrant Muslim students would be placed in a position to risk possible confrontation with reactionary or defensive passions of those who are the religious majority in the community.

I was also surprised by the apparent degree of ignorance presented by the speaker.

The speaker engaged in the common mistakes of religious zealots that often lead to conflicts.

First, he chose to talk about another religion that he does not know much about, and he should have known more about his religion.

Second, he chose Bible verses he could interpret to support his claim and ignored verses he could not so easily explain. Christians who believe in the divinity of Christ and in the trinity use the virgin birth of Jesus and his claim to be the son of God and oneness with God.

The creation story in the Jewish Torah, the Christian Bible and the Islamic Quran (Surah 15:26) all present God the creator in a plural form; let us make man. While the imam insists that Jesus is human like Muhammad, he did not explain the virgin birth of Jesus, which is attributed to no other person. He rejected the Christian view of Jesus as God but did not explain why Muslims also believe, like Christians do, that Jesus will return to judge and to rule the world.

Attempting to reduce the object of one's faith is the ultimate assault to people of that faith.

The imam would not dare convene a public lecture to challenge or examine the apparent contradictions in the Quran and of Islamic faith and teachings. The imam is certainly aware of Islamic fatwas against people who go against its holy teachings.

Any Christian or convert from Islam who engages in public denunciation of Islamic teachings — even in America — faces major efforts to silence them. If they attempt to do it in an Islamic country, they might be killed.

The imam speaking to Muslim students in this country of "the free" may intend to enforce negative Islamic teachings about Christianity.

However, the single most courageous question asked of him by a veiled female Muslim student suggests that, in this country, the teachings of Islam will be questioned by its followers, a traditional prohibition in most Islamic countries.

This is the opinion of Dick Andzenge, a professor of criminal justice and victimology. Andzenge is an internationally recognized expert victimologist, who is a program director and lecturer for several academic courses in many countries. His column is published the second Wednesday of the month.